The BBC has radically overhauled the voting system for the Sports Personality of the Year award following last year's controversy about the all-male shortlist, ahead of the most hotly contested year in its history.

The victor will still be decided by the voting public but it has abandoned the practice of asking a wide range of newspapers and magazines to vote for their shortlist, a process that last year led to an all-male shortlist amid heated debate over the reasons why.

Instead, the initial shortlist will be decided by a panel of 12 experts including BBC executives, former nominees, newspaper sports editors and sports administrators. The shortlist has been expanded to 12 from 10 due, said the BBC, to "the unprecedented success of UK athletes in 2012".

Bradley Wiggins, Andy Murray, Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah, Rory McIlroy and David Weir are expected to be among the contenders for an award that any of them could have won in other years.

It is understood that the format of the show, which will be presented from London's ExCeL Centre (itself a London 2012 venue), will also be revamped so that it is a more traditional review of the year's sporting action rather than focusing exclusively on the nominees.

The panel will include three newspaper sports editors, to be rotated annually, including the Observer's Matthew Hancock. Three BBC Sport executives will be joined by the Radio 5 Live sport presenter Eleanor Oldroyd, the sports broadcaster Sue Mott, three former nominees who this year will be Sir Steve Redgrave, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and Denise Lewis, and the UK Sport chair, Baroness Sue Campbell.

The panel will also choose the first, second and third places for the Team of the Year, Overseas Personality of the Year and Coach of the Year awards.

The BBC director of sport, Barbara Slater, who will chair the panel, said in a blog that consideration had been given to suggestions to split the award into male and female categories and to having separate awards for Olympians and Paralympians. But she concluded: "We have decided to keep with tradition and not risk devaluing the success of any particular sportsperson, so we have retained the format that has served the nation well for 58 years, of one overall Sports Personality of the Year award."

She added: "One of the most notable features of sport is the passion it instils as people discuss what they have watched, listened to or read. I can't wait for the panel to convene and open up the debate over these awards."

The show, scheduled so it does not clash with the X Factor final, will be broadcast live from Excel on Sunday 16 December.